I've
been drawing Celtic Knotwork for years and I have developed several techniques
and my own methods. These tutorials demonstrate those methods. The first
(left side of the page) is similar in some ways to the methods of George
Bain, his son Iain Bain and many of the artists that preceded them. The
biggest difference between my method and the traditional methods is that
I use computer graphics programs, but the instructions below are applicable
to pencil and paper as well. The second method illustrated here uses the
Celtic Knot Font. This font is based on the same forms that can be created
using the first method, but the knotwork has been cut apart into separate
reusable pieces. I then converted those pieces into characters in a font.
The pieces are linked to keys on your computer
keyboard, giving you the ability to TYPE KNOTS!

I realize
that some folks may consider this comparison of methods to be biased because
I profit from the sales of the font that is necessary for the second method.
WELL THEY WOULD BE RIGHT! I AM BIASED! Even though I created it, I still
use it a lot and consider it to be a very valuable tool. It makes the
job of creating Celtic knotwork MUCH easier, allows for more flexibility
in the patterns, and size, and the coolest thing about it is that the
Celtic Knot font often surprises me by making patterns that I never would
have thought of using traditional methods. It is actually lots of FUN!

The first
method illustrated here is the method that I used to create the font.
I still use this method, as the font cannot create every knot imaginable
(I am working on that!). But even when I am designing a custom hand drawn
knot for a project I still start with the Celtic Knot font to get an idea
of what sort of pattern I want in the finished knotwork and then re-trace
or stylize whatever I created with the font. Please read this tutorial
with an open mind and pay attention to how much time and effort this font
can save. Everyone's time has SOME value, and if you can save a couple
of hours designing one piece of knotwork then the Celtic Knot font will
save you money every time you use it..

The
old method

These
instructions can be followed with pencil and paper or using any computer
based drawing or drafting program. I have used Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator,
and AutoDesk AutoCad for various projects, but my favorite is Corel
Draw. In the tutorial below I show the method that I use in Corel Draw;
however, I have deliberately left out program-specific instructions.
I did this to make the instructions more broadly applicable to work
with as many drawing and CAD programs as possible.

This method,
like most, begins with drawing the grid. Of course you could use graph
paper, but that would limit the size of your finished pattern to the
sizes of graph paper that you happen to have available. What size should
you make the grid? Well that depends on what size you want your final
pattern to be. If you are making a pattern for leatherwork, for instance,
you would want to draw the pattern to be the size of the final project;
say - wallet size. How many squares should you make? That is a tougher
question. The number of squares depends on the pattern that you are
going to make. The problem is that we often don't know what sort of
pattern we want at this stage. So what do we do? Guess? Pick out a pattern
that someone else created and copy it? We just have to pick a number
of squares that fits into our final size and forge ahead hoping that
the resulting pattern will look good and that we aren't wasting our
efforts. This grid is 4 squares tall and 6 squares wide.

The second step
is to draw in the diagonals. These lines will be the path followed by
most of the knotwork. The diagonal lines must be drawn starting from
the middle of the sides of the grid squares. In other words, don't draw
the diagonals from the points of the grid squares or you'll end up with
loose ends sticking out at all four corners.

Next
draw in the connecting curves that will become the edges of the knotwork.
I make these curves tangent to the diagonals. In other words they connect
smoothly to the diagonal lines.

This
is the step that most people have the most trouble with: deciding where
to "Break the Grid". The thing that makes Celtic knotwork
unique from the plaiting (or weaving) seen in many other cultures is
the introduction of "BREAKS" into the weave. I've always found
it to be rather fascinating: that Celtic knotwork is defined more by
where the pattern ISN'T than where the pattern IS. It is a design form
made of empty spaces within an otherwise solid object.

So,
where do we put these spaces to make an aesthetically pleasing design?
A person with extraordinary visualization skills could probably imagine
what a knot will look like, but for the average person it is a "try-it-and-see"
sort of operation. Here we find the biggest single problem with ALL
of the traditional Celtic knotwork construction methods: you have to
know what your knot is going to look like BEFORE you design it!

Here
is how I do it:: I CHEAT! I use the Celtic Knot Font featured in the
parallel tutorial to try out designs. I put together a bunch of pieces
and experiment with them 'til I find a pattern that looks cool! I just
plug in new pieces, delete the combinations that I don't like and try
some more combinations of parts. You, however, don't have the Celtic
Knot Font (yet!) so you have 2 choices:

1).
Copy what I did here (or someone else's designs from a book).

Or

2).
Make some breaks by trial and error and see what happens. If you are
lucky it will look good. If you aren't lucky you will waste a bunch
of time drawing an ugly knot and have to erase it all and start over,
or get disgusted and quit (or you could go here
and order the Font). See, I warned you that I was biased....

But
back to the tutorial. The red lines on our grid show where I am going
to make my breaks.

Follow the diagonals
until you come to a red line. When you get to a red line, add a curve
so that your line continues into the other line that is broken at the
same place. Adding these curves completes the path of the knotwork.
Darken this line so that we can see the path clearly for the next step.

OK, now that you
spent all of that time drawing the grid, the diagonals and the breaks,
erase all of it except the knotwork path that we darkened in the last
step. Here is what it should look like.

For
this step a computer graphics program comes in real handy. We need to
make a new outline all around the entire knotwork path. In Corel Draw
you can combine all of the lines into one object and use the contour
tool to make a line all around the knotwork path. In AutoCad you can
use the offset function to make a line that is parallel to (but offset
from) your existing lines. If you use Adobe illustrator you can create
a custom pen type with 2 lines and stroke the knotwork path with your
new pen. If you are doing this with a pencil you'll have to eyeball
it. Draw a line all the way around the knotwork path and inside all
of the little holes in the pattern. The new line should be offset from
the original path by 1/2 of the desired width of the finished knotwork
cord.

When
you are done with doubling the line, erase the original knotwork path
so that all that is left is the outline.

We're
almost there! Hang in there just a little while longer and we will have
a knot! And don't pay any attention to those smug folks that started
the parallel tutorial at the same time that you started this one and
finished making the same knot over an hour ago. You can be proud that
you did it the HARD WAY!

All
that is left is to figure out the "Over / Under Thing". You
can start anywhere on the path of the knot and make 2 little lines at
each intersection. Be sure to alternate one way and then the other,
over and under, until all of the intersections are done or until you
run into an area where you find that you went OVER-OVER, or UNDER-UNDER.
In which case you erase lines until you've eliminated the ones that
are wrong and do it over. Look at the next illustration and you can
see what I mean. Of course if you had used the Celtic Knot Font you
wouldn't have to worry about the "Over / Under Thing" because
that has been done for you already.

So,
there you have it, a completed Celtic knot! It looks pretty good. Of
course I'm a professional graphic artist who has done this sort of thing
for a living for over a decade, so your results may vary. Because I
am fairly proficient at this, it only took me about 2 hours to make
this knot for this tutorial.

Now
that you have read this tutorial, read the next one to the right to
learn another method.

The
Celtic Knot Font Method

This
tutorial shows how to create Celtic knotwork by a revolutionary new
method. The secret is an ornamental font! It does not make letters like
an ordinary font; it makes pieces of Celtic knotwork. The basic pieces
that you need to create a Celtic knot are located conveniently in one
corner of you computer keyboard:

The
corners of this square of keys (OK, it's a parallelogram) make the corners
of a knot. The sides of this square make the sides of a knot, and the
middle makes a middle piece. Like this:

We
can make the TONS of knots using just those 9 keys (the Celtic Knot
font has almost 200 different pieces). Just by typing more of the side
and middle pieces

qwwwwe
assssd
assssd
zxxxxc

we
can make this:

There
is no layout phase, no grids or diagonals to draw - just type those
keys and you have this artwork! Many people stop here and think that
they are finished. This really isn't Celtic knotwork yet. Read my rambling
speech in the parallel tutorial for some of my philosophy about the
breaks in knotwork. Without the breaks this isn't knotwork yet. So let's
add some breaks, but first, scroll down because we are already way ahead
of the folks in the parallel tutorial.

Keep
going....

Keep
going....

Yes
we really are that far ahead of them....

OK,
we need to figure out where to put the breaks. If you have read the
other side you already know that I used the Celtic Knot Font to design
the knotwork used for these tutorials. How did I do that? After I made
the pattern above, I simply substituted pieces to see what looked good.
I started in the middle of the top row and replaced 2 of the "w"
pieces with "j" and "k"

How
did know where those pieces fit? Well, aside from the fact that I made
this thing and I know how ALL of the pieces fit, I could look at the
keyboard chart that is included with every copy of the Celtic Knot font.

Click on this
image to see a larger version.

Notice
how similar parts are grouped together? Let's take a closer look.

See
how the "j" and "k" fit together to create horizontal
lines? We can use them to replace the two middle pieces on the top row.
I tried it and it looked good, so I did the same thing on the bottom
using the "m" and "," keys. Similarly, the "7"
and "u" and the "8" and "i" work together
to form vertical lines. I used them to form the sides where I wanted
straight lines in the knotwork. Notice that these are all pieces that
work well on edges.

Next,
I decided to try adding some breaks in the middle, so I tried the "5"
and "t" Like this:

So
to make breaks, you just replace "Unbroken Pieces" with the
equivalent "Broken Pieces". Here are the pieces that I need
to replace (shown in gray) to get the same design as shown in the parallel
tutorial.

After
we make those substitutions WE ARE DONE! We can sit here smugly, knowing
that we are finished while those folks doing the other tutorial are
still laying out their grid! Here is what our completed knot looks like:

OK,
I admit that I have an edge, by being extremely familiar with the font;
but I can go through ALL of these steps in under 2 MINUTES without hardly
trying! REALLY! Of course your results may vary! :) But even if you
are really slow, you can design a Celtic knot in under 10 MINUTES instead
of the 2 or more HOURS that were necessary for the old method. That
gives you 1 hour and 50 minutes more time to work on the project that
you wanted this knotwork for! Furthermore, your knots will look just
as good as these; skill and artistic ability are no longer an issue!
And if you are an artist, you'll have a lot more time for the really
fun part, embellishing your knots in amazing ways now that the prepwork
is done!

If
you used the method on the left and you want to change your knotwork,
then you will have to start over . If you used the Celtic Knot Font
method you can modify what you have.

You can change
the size of your knotwork by just changing the point size of the font:

You can copy a
section and paste it over and over to make a long line of knotwork:

You
can reuse sections and delete sections.
You can experiment and play with the knots, creating endless variations
on a theme:

You can use the
font DIRECTLY in Photoshop and utilize all sorts of spectacular effects:

Of
course you could do that with a hand drawn knot, but by the time you
are finished drawing the knotwork you're exhausted, drained and at your
wit's end! With the Celtic Knot Font you are inspired and energized
and ready to DECORATE THE WORLD WITH CELTIC KNOTWORK!